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College remedial reading provides students with a chance to catch up on basic reading skills. These skills are a critical predictor of college success because students who can't read well can't study effectively. Remedial classes are common in college, and the U.S. Department of Education reports that about a third of college students take a remedial class. Students may be placed in these classes due to professor referrals, standardized test scores or the student's desire to improve reading skills.

Vocabulary Development

When students struggle to comprehend readings, vocabulary issues can play a major role. Many college remedial reading classes focus on helping students master basic vocabulary terms appropriate for college-level work. Additionally, students may learn skills such as deducing the meaning of a word from context clues, analyzing a word's potential meaning based upon its component parts and looking up words they don't understand.

Reading Pace

Students who read very slowly may get frustrated and give up on a reading assignment. Consequently, many college reading programs teach students skills for reading more quickly and for skimming material prior to reading. For example, a unit might focus on reading sub-headings and sounding out challenging words. Students may also be encouraged to temporarily slow the pace of their reading for better comprehension and then to speed up their reading later in the semester.

Reading Comprehension

No matter how fast a student reads or how many words he understands, he won't do well on assignments if he can't comprehend the main points of an article. Reading comprehension is a primary focus in most remedial classes. Students may have nightly reading assignments that they discuss in the next class, and they frequently learn skills for improving reading comprehension. They might, for example, chart the main ideas of an article, learn to take notes as they read or be encouraged to read through an article twice.

Critical Reading

Critical reading is the ability not only to understand a piece, but also to question its logic and arguments. Students in remedial reading classes may be taught the basic rules of logic, general guidelines for forming arguments and tools for analyzing argumentative and analytical pieces. Classroom-based discussion and reading responses may play important roles in learning this skill.

Writing

Writing and reading are intimately related, and students with good reading skills often see their writing improve. Many remedial reading classes have a strong focus on writing. Students might, for example, be required to write a response to each piece they read and might have to submit regular book reports. Some professors use reading material to teach students how to improve their own writing by, for example, helping a student recognize the elements of a well-formed paragraph or a strongly supported argument.

About the Author

Van Thompson is an attorney and writer. A former martial arts instructor, he holds bachelor's degrees in music and computer science from Westchester University, and a juris doctor from Georgia State University. He is the recipient of numerous writing awards, including a 2009 CALI Legal Writing Award.